Councillor O'Toole attended a Community Futures meeting as well as the Shell Livewire awards event, which awarded funding to many community businesses to help them enhance the services they provide to the community. The Combative Sports Commission held a meeting remotely; discussion included the opportunity to begin training for coaches, judges and officials in order to support future events. The Alberta Bilingual Association is preparing a tourism campaign for this summer highlighting indigenous communities and their activities planned for this year. Quebec City has pulled out of the Francophone & Francophile association due to financial hardship; support for the association is needed.
Councillor Bressey attended the Grande Prairie Sport Connection meeting and the Sports Excellence Awards virtual event, which Telus Optic is showcasing. A Regional Recreation Committee board meeting was held last week to discuss the High-Performance Sports Centre; it was determined there was no interest in regional funding for this project. The Swan City Football Association project was also discussed and focused on the potential to locate in the County Sportsplex.
Councillor Friesen attended the GP Library Board meeting and discussion focused on sponsorship of items for the Library such as Chromebooks and Wi-Fi smart hubs. The program is very important and will continue to operate for people such as students and low income residents. The Grande Prairie library operates on one of the lowest budgets in the province and services one of the highest volumes of users. 3D printing will be available at the library beginning April 6. Councillor Friesen attended the Northwest Alberta Sports Excellence awards, the Neighbourhood Association Forum, an AHS Community Conversation regarding COVID, the Regional Economic Development Summit, and the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination event.
Councillor Thiessen attended a CABH meeting last week where there was a presentation of the Housing First review and results of the Point-In-Time count. Over 10 years of the Housing First program resulted in over 650 uses by youth of this program. The Point-In-Time Count was last done in 2018, and is scheduled to take place on April 20 this year. Homelessness has declined since November, from 177 down to 148. Rapid Rehousing funds were initiated by CMHC; most of these funds went to housing projects in larger cities. Council Thiessen also attended the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination event.
Councillor Pilat attended the Storm Hockey board meeting. Home games are now being televised, the 50/50 is going well, and they are developing some other marketing opportunities through social media. Councillor Pilat attended the Elected Officials course on service delivery remotely.
Mayor Clayton attended the Mid-sized Cities Mayors meeting, the Regional Recreation Committee, the Regional Economic Development Conversations, the City of Wetaskiwin/County state of address, and brought greetings to the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination event.